“Yes, you are my wife, beloved. Mine! I will open those beautiful jeweled eyes of yours to the many sweet ways that lovemaking can be pursued,” he told her.
She smiled up at him and said simply, “I adore you, Amir. Teach me to please you, and please me as you will. I have no fear of your love, for I know you will never hurt me. I trust in you, my love, so much so that I am willing to share you with your other wives.”
“Never bring them into this chamber when we are together, Azura,” he said gently. “I will always hold them in my esteem, but it is you that I will forever love.”
Then he kissed her, his lips proving as they moved over hers the truth of the words that he had just spoken. Everything about her excited him. Her exotic scent, her silken hair, the very warmth of her sweet nature, her growing wisdom, her kind heart.
They could not seem to cease from caressing each other. He cupped her breasts in his two hands. She stroked his cock with teasing fingers. Their bodies twined and untwined, learning and relearning. Their tongues tasted each other’s flesh, licking, nipping, their soft moans of longing echoing in the air. The time and the distance that had separated them had only increased the passion they felt for each other.
Finally Azura took his handsome face between her two hands, scattering little kisses across his eyelids, the bridge of his long nose, and across his thin but sensuous mouth. “Am I shameless that I can wait no longer?” she asked him.
In answer he covered her with his body, sliding into her welcoming sheath. “Am I?” he countered, smiling. “I have waited too long for you to return to me, beloved.” Then he began to move on her, slowly pressing forward, slowly withdrawing, over and over and over again until she wrapped her limbs about his torso. Her nails raking down his long back, she hissed one word at him.
“Faster!”
With a growl of delight he complied, his cock flashing back and forth with increasing rapidity.
Azura’s eyes closed as she began to drown in pleasure. She reveled in the sensation of his thickness, his length, the fire he was arousing within her very soul. His body felt so solid beneath her hands, beneath her legs as they squeezed him. She could not remember being filled with such deeply felt gratification. It had always been wonderful with him, but suddenly it was beyond that. Her head was spinning with such intense feelings she wasn’t certain she could survive it.
“Amir! Ohh, Amir!” she cried out as the sensation of being swept up into the heavens overcame her.
He groaned deeply. He couldn’t seem to get enough of her. He thrust harder and deeper until his swollen manhood cried its surrender, exploding, his heated juices filling her hidden garden, overflowing onto the bedding beneath them. He could scarcely catch his breath. He was suddenly both exhausted and filled with contentment. When her legs fell away from his torso, he wrapped his arms about her, drawing her so close she protested, but only faintly. Then they both fell into a deep sleep.
Towards the dawn, Ali Farid came to find Nadim seated cross-legged outside the prince’s bedchamber door. “Why have you not escorted your mistress back to her own bedchamber?” he demanded of the old eunuch.
“They are not yet ready to be separated,” Nadim told the head harem eunuch.
“He has never lingered so long with the other two,” Ali Farid said, puzzled. “In fact he has taken his pleasure quickly, and then dismissed them.”
“He does not love the other two,” Nadim replied. “He does love my mistress, the lady Azura. She has his heart.”
Ali Farid nodded slowly. The old eunuch could be correct, and if he was, no matter that Maysun and Shahdi were the first and second wives. It would be Azura, the third wife, who would hold the power in the harem. He would watch and think on this new information. “Continue to wait,” he said to Nadim.
When the sunlight finally filled the room outside the prince’s bedchamber, the door opened. Nadim was instantly upon his feet, surprisingly agile for his age. He draped a soft cotton kaftan over Azura, and wordlessly led her from her husband’s quarters to the harem bath, where she was bathed, and then to her own small bedchamber where she lay down and slept for several hours. When she awoke there was a meal awaiting her.
The harem quarters were quiet. She called for Agata, and together they went out into the gardens. There they found Maysun and Shahdi carefully pruning some rosebushes. The two other wives greeted Azura with cheerful smiles, and Maysun suggested that they walk together, handing her shears to an attending gardener.
“You pleased him well last night,” she told Azura. “We heard him singing this morning. It is rare that he sings.” The truth was that they had never heard him sing.
Azura blushed. Having her intimate moments with Amir discussed so openly by another woman was a new experience. She wasn’t certain it was something she would become used to, and she was not certain what to say in return. The other two wives took her silence as modesty, and were well pleased by it.
“You have made him happy again, which means all here at the Moonlight Serai can be happy,” Shahdi added. Secretly she was a little annoyed, for she had believed their husband was content before Azura came. Now it would appear he had not been. Why could she and Maysun not be enough for an unimportant prince who avoided both battle and the responsibilities of his great family?
“I am glad, then,” Azura replied, finally realizing that the two older wives appreciated her demure manner.
“You have not been trained in the way of harem women,” Maysun said. “I have heard that proper women from the West come to their husband’s beds as virgins, but know nothing of how to make love. They rely on their men to teach them these things. You had a husband once, didn’t you?”
“Yes, a cruel man,” Azura said. “His manners with me were depraved and corrupt. When my mother learned of it she stole me from him, hid me away, and my family attempted to have the union dissolved. It was then I met Prince Amir. We became friends, but not lovers, as I was a married woman even if I did not live with my husband. Eventually my husband found me. He beat me, but the women who served me drove him from my house. He was returning to Florence to get aid in his attempt to bring me back when he was murdered upon the road.”
“By robbers?” Shahdi asked. “Or enemies? Or was it your family?”
“It was not a robbery, for his jewelry remained upon his person, and his full purse was still on his belt,” Azura said. “No one has ever found out who killed him. His reputation was such that no one, even his grown sons, cared. They were glad he was dead. He was an evil man, and had no real friends.”
“Being a virtual innocent then was quite permissible,” Maysun said, “but now we share a husband. We would be remiss if we did not school you in harem ways. Amir loves you, but as with all men, love is not enough. We will teach you how to entertain him like a good Turkish wife. He must not get bored, and seek a larger harem.”
“You mean a fourth wife?” Azura asked.
“It isn’t just another wife we must all consider,” Maysun said.
